Part I

A little girl builds a model ship with her dad

The humming of their voices fill the room

As she passes pieces to him, he glues them together

“It’s almost done,” he says, “we just need to paint it.”

“Will it float daddy?”

“No, it’s just a model.”

He gives her the paintbrush and the paint, saying

“Here you paint it.”

Excitedly she grabs the paint

Already able to envision her masterpiece in her head

However, her young unsteady hands

Produce the messy work of a 5-year-old

It’s a blurry jumble of black, red, and white

But, somehow to her, it’s perfect

Her dad picks her up and places her on his lap

Together they stare at a somewhat distorted model of the Titanic

Smiling her dad says, “I love it,” in a warm and affectionate tone

The two of them set it on the shelf in her bedroom to dry

And the model ship has stayed there ever since

 

Part II

A little girl walks down the beach with her dad

Head down she checks the ground for little treasures

“Look, daddy, it’s a hermit crab shell!

Can you put it in your pocket to save it for me?”

“Anything for you, darling”

He takes the shell, safely tucking it away in his coat pocket

And she runs ahead looking for more shells

She can feel the cold wet sand between her toes

As she walks closer to the water’s edge

Then, a wave breaks and the icy water rushes towards her feet

She lets out a high pitched scream running back up the beach towards her dad

Once her feet are no longer tingling from the cold she asks,

“Daddy, can you race me down the beach?”

“Sweetie, Daddy’s getting older, he can’t do that anymore, let’s go back home”

Slightly disappointed she says, “okay” and they set off down the road

When they reach the front door he tries to take the shell out of his pocket

Fumbling with it he drops it on the concrete porch

And just like that, the pristine shell is broken

He picks up what remains of the shell

Placing it on the porch, cracks and all

 

Part III

A little girl sits in the living room playing with her iPad

Her dad watches over her, thinking there are better things she could do

He asks, “Would you like to go play outside with me?”

Remember how we used to have ‘great adventures’?”

Finally, she looks up from her game

And she remembers all the times they would play in the canal outside their house

Knee deep in mud, trying not to fall in the water   

They would pretend they were on a jungle safari or a crocodile hunt

Avoiding the dangerous creatures that might lurk in the murky waters

Every time they had the same end goal

Make it to the sandy beaches of the island at the end of the canal

There they would try to find the shells of clams and the claws of crabs

Before eventually making the “great adventure” back home

The little girl looking down at her game and up at her dad

Says, “I think I’ll pass for today”

This happened the next time and the time after that

And so on, until one day her dad finally stopped asking her